I found an activity for analyzing the story of the Donner party by using the PBS video as testimony in a trial and then asking the student to write evidence as they watch the video. The trial is who is to blame for the disaster: the members of the Donner party themselves or Lansford Hastings, who told them about the tragic shortcut.
The video was spread over two class meetings and I wish I had more than ten minutes for discussion, but the students were interested in the video and the discussion was lively. I broke up the class into groups of three to five and had them discuss the evidence they collected and vote on a verdict. I then asked each for its verdict and for the strongest piece of supporting evidence. I liked it, and they were obviously interested in the video and the discussion.
Though it is from an eighth-grade history teacher, the worksheet and activity also did well in my lower-division class.
The next day a co-worker brought up an issue that she was having in her online class: her students were not watching an assigned video even though they knew they would be tested on it. We talked about having a task that students have to complete while watching the video, maybe a worksheet with specific questions.
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